Ammonia spike

Koglin said:

But, you might consider a bit less of a water change during moments like that so you don't interrupt the cycle. Since you were able to take out all the ammonia and nitrites I think the beneficial bacteria doesn't really have a food source to stabilize themselves with now. So they'll have to wait for more ammonia from waste etc. to develop to get going again, then the ammonia takes like 24-48 hrs to become nitrites, then the nitrites will need another like 15-24 hrs to become nitrates (end of cycle). It'll all just kind of bounce around like that until eventually your am and ni naturally hit 0 and stay there. At that point there is enough bacteria to keep up with your tank. Adding a bunch of fish at once can overload the bacteria too, causing mini cycles.

So for sure change water to keep your nitrates down, just try not remove too much. Definitely change if the am and ni levels get too high, but if they're spiking lower on your scale you could try x1 dose of Prime per day (if you can't rehome the fish) during your fish in cycle. It will neutralize the ammonia and nitrites (for roughly 24 hrs or so) so they are not as harmful to the fish, but it's still usable for your bacteria so the cycle can keep going. That's what I did for the mini cycle I encountered at least, and my fish pulled through it. 1 day my readings were a bit higher than I wanted so I just used x1.5 doses of prime (eye dropper helps for smaller tanks).

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Shiverz said:

Fish-in cycling is scary business, I don't have the cahoneys to even attempt it, I just stare at an empty tank until it's ready for the fishies.

I'm glad you was able to control the spike quickly and efficiently, can I ask, are you using seachem prime? or are you doing water changes whenever the conditions start to deteriorate?



When the ammonia reaches 0.25 performing a water change is the right course of action (especially if you're not using seachem prime). It is true that water changes reduces the amount of ammonia in tank, which then limits the amount of food the beneficial bacteria has to work with. Using seachem prime can certainly help (if the OP has it to hand) though alot of people (including myself) rarely use chemicals unless it's an absolute emergency, so doing a water change fish-in cycling is common (at least when it comes to fish-in cycling).

Whether you use seachem prime, or just standard water changing, both methods are slow and I don't think that there is too much of a difference when it comes to how long it takes (yet, as stated I've only done fishless cycling so I'm going off what others have wrote about). Either way, it'll take a while so do whatever you feel comfortable with. I think less chemicals is better, others disagree, it's just another one of those topics.

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Shiverz said:

Fish-in cycling is scary business, I don't have the cahoneys to even attempt it, I just stare at an empty tank until it's ready for the fishies.

I'm glad you was able to control the spike quickly and efficiently, can I ask, are you using seachem prime? or are you doing water changes whenever the conditions start to deteriorate?



When the ammonia reaches 0.25 performing a water change is the right course of action (especially if you're not using seachem prime). It is true that water changes reduces the amount of ammonia in tank, which then limits the amount of food the beneficial bacteria has to work with. Using seachem prime can certainly help (if the OP has it to hand) though alot of people (including myself) rarely use chemicals unless it's an absolute emergency, so doing a water change fish-in cycling is common (at least when it comes to fish-in cycling).

Whether you use seachem prime, or just standard water changing, both methods are slow and I don't think that there is too much of a difference when it comes to how long it takes (yet, as stated I've only done fishless cycling so I'm going off what others have wrote about). Either way, it'll take a while so do whatever you feel comfortable with. I think less chemicals is better, others disagree, it's just another one of those topics.

Click to expand...